Sawiskera flew at Theo and they met each other in midair, crashing to the ground as they grappled, hands grasping forearms, fangs bared as one strove to overpower the other. Selah knew Theo shouldn’t have a chance against him, should have been crushed immediately by his sire, but somehow, he wasn’t. He held his own.
She stepped forward to help and hit an invisible wall. Fell back, and then ran forward again. A curtain of invisible energy stopped her, and she stared down. The circle of sand. She tried to kick it apart, but her toe was stopped inches from the grains. Selah cried out and pounded her fists against the wall. She felt an alien strength raging within her, but it was futile. The wall held her trapped.
Sawiskera bucked his body and threw Theo off. The Dragon hit a desk, shattered the wood into kindling, and then rolled over the ground into Cloud’s chair, hitting it hard enough to knock him over. Theo rose to his feet, only to find Sawiskera waiting for him. The vampire king’s power was coming back. Faster than the eye could follow he struck at Theo, who blocked the first, second, third attack, only to miss the fourth and be lifted off the ground by the neck.
“You pathetic creature,” snarled Sawiskera, eyes slits, voice almost incomprehensible. “You dare raise your hand against me?”
Theo wasn’t interested in small talk. He wrapped his left leg around Sawiskera’s waist, holding him tight, and then lashed out with his right knee, burying it with all his force into Sawiskera’s chest, cracking his sternum. Sawiskera dropped him with a croak and stepped back.
Selah screamed. Pounded on the invisible wall. Saw that Cloud had opened his eyes, was staring in horror at the fight taking place before him.
“Cloud!” she yelled. He looked up, over at her. “Cloud, help me! Come here!”
Whatever had been done to him had hurt him badly. He blinked, tried to focus on her. Wriggled, and then she saw him go impossibly pale and nearly pass out as pain washed over him.
Selah looked over at the two vampires. They were exchanging blows faster than the eye could follow, but Sawiskera was winning. He was demolishing Theo blow by blow, driving him down to one knee, knocking him back. For every punch Theo landed, his sire landed three.
Cloud forced his eyes open. Took a deep breath and wriggled free of his chair once more. His hands were cuffed behind his back, but he hadn’t been actually tied to the chair. He worked himself across the floor, sweat drenching him in moments, and then sat up, tried to rise, and fell over once more.
Selah didn’t think about how she felt. The corruption she sensed within her own body. The sordid taste in the back of her throat, the feverish burning swamping her. She stared fixedly at Cloud. Tried to lend him strength, to help him through sheer will.
Theo was down. Sawiskera walked toward him. Cloud straightened, fell over closer to her. A foot from the circle. “Break it!” she cried. “Break the circle of sand!”
Sawiskera placed his foot on Theo’s throat. Drew his hand back to strike.
Cloud reached out and with a convulsive movement of his head, broke the circle.
Selah flowed free. Like a spirit of vengeance she fell upon Sawiskera before he had a chance to react. She caught him by the shoulders and cast him against the wall with enough force that he crashed through it, and fell into the far room. She went after him. Clawed her way through the hole, but he was already up. He grabbed her right fist, and she his left. They stood, suddenly immobile, each straining against the other. Staring into each other’s eyes.
“You gave me too much,” she hissed. Eyes narrowed, he fought not to show his shock, to show fear. Clearly nobody had resisted him in such manner for millennia. But Selah felt Sawiskera’s own strength in her limbs. In her fingers. He was her height, she realized. A compact, slender man. Who was now beginning to buckle before her.
But his was a will that went beyond strength. His was a mind that had obdurately fought for survival through countless challenges. She saw him reach deep within himself, reach past the part that was mere strength, and call upon his foul will.
Slowly he began to rise. To force her back. She leaned into him, trying to crush his wrist. Her body burned in black flames, her spirit tumbling away, lost and broken. All that mattered was this moment, this creature. Ending its life. Breaking it while she still had his strength, his vitality within her.
But he was too strong. Despite how much he’d poured into her, he was still too strong. He rose up, off his knee, and stood again. The shock was replaced by satisfaction, his face contorting with hunger. He raised himself higher and began to drive her down to the ground.
Then he contorted, spasmed, and a stake emerged through his chest, blunt end smeared in blood. Punched right through his ribcage, and Sawiskera lost all his strength, released his hold, and toppled to the ground, eyes staring at nothing.
Theo stood, face battered, the ridge of his left eye crushed, left arm hanging useless by his side. Selah stared at him, and he offered her a bleak smile before collapsing to the ground as well.
Chapter Twenty-Five
With Cloud hobbling beside her and Theo staggering after, Selah quit the penthouse, walking past the stunned guards who poured in through the door behind her and became the first to see Sawiskera’s impaled and beheaded body turning into the finest dust. Selah waited grimly for the elevator to arrive, ignoring the yells that sounded from the panicked guards, the requests for help, for assistance, for orders. The threesome entered the elevator and rode it down, knowing that when the doors opened below, they would face a maelstrom of panic and resistance.
Fortunately, Cloud thought to send them into the parking garage. They skipped the lobby for the wide-open concrete spaces beneath ground, and it was there that Theo took his leave.
“I can’t go with you,” he said, stepping away.
Selah examined his face. How the pain, fatigue, and misery had carved deep lines around his mouth, creased the corners of his eyes. As if he’d aged a thousand vampire years in but a few hours.
“Where will you go?” She didn’t try to dissuade him, knowing it would be of no use. She could see how her proximity hurt him now, understood how his emotions were still raw from her blood. How old memories had been stirred into life.
“I’ll leave Miami,” he said. He lifted his head as if hearing something, and then looked back at her. “Plessy will now step into power. I don’t want to be in a city that’s under his control.”
Cloud nodded. “Plessy. You think he’s worse than Sawiskera?” Selah and Theo exchanged a look. They both turned to Cloud and nodded. Theo said, “I’m starting to wonder how much of all this was his plan all along. If he knew that my drinking your blood would break my loyalty and snap my bonds to Sawiskera. Would free me to finally attack him. How much we have all played into his hands.”
“Shit,” said Cloud. “That ain’t good.”
“Take care of yourself,” said Selah. She wanted to say something more, but once again felt an abyss between them. Even reaching out to touch him was too much.
Theo nodded stiffly. “You too. Perhaps we’ll … meet again.”
“You never know.” Selah smiled bravely at him. “And thanks. Thanks for everything.”
Theo’s smile turned bitter, wry. “I never had a choice. Not really. Not looking the way you do.” He turned and walked away, heading toward the car ramp that led to the next level.
“That was Sawiskera’s Dragon,” said Cloud, “and he just helped us kill the vampire king.”
“Yeah.”
“And we’re both still alive.”
Selah smiled again. “Yes.”
Cloud shook his head, and then slipped his hand around the nape of Selah’s neck and pulled her against him. They stood like that, eyes closed as they held each other, and then Cloud pulled back. A glint burned in the depths of his eyes. Wonder, perhaps, or awe. “Then let’s get the hell out of here.” He limped over to a compact Audi the color of vampire eyes and tried the door. It opened. He lowered himself carefully into the driver�
��s seat. Selah rounded the hood to the passenger door as Cloud brought the engine rumbling to life.
“Where we going?” asked Cloud.
There was no doubt. “The Palisades. Mama B. Then—out.”
“All right.”
They drove out of the parking garage. Nobody tried to stop them. There was nobody at the front gate, so Cloud simply pulled out carefully and took off down Biscayne. Looking out the window, Selah watched crowds of people surging back and forth. People stared into their Omnis, talked and gesticulated wildly to each other.
“Things have gone to hell,” said Selah quietly. “With Sawiskera gone, it’s going to be a rough couple of nights.”
“You bet,” said Cloud. He rested his head back and winced once more as he hitched his weight to one side. “How are you … how are you feeling?”
Selah closed her eyes. Tried to figure out an answer to that question. Breathed slowly. She didn’t feel Sawiskera’s power burning through her any longer, that sensation that she could tear open cars or even hurl them across the street. But something was wrong, on a deep, once-inviolate level. It felt as if a hole had appeared in her core, a hole that punched way down into her being, and was now filled with slime. A deep morass of darkness that, for the moment, lay still, but was undeniably there. She tried to focus on it, to probe this pollution, but she didn’t have the strength, the resolve, to push too deep. Shuddering, she opened her eyes.
“Not good. I don’t know what happened to me up there. He was going to steal my humanity. Going to make me a vampire. I think—I think Theo stopped him in time. But I still don’t feel right.”
Cloud’s face was grim. “I didn’t want to say anything at first. But here. Take a look at yourself.” He reached out and lowered her sun visor, and then flipped open the mirror cover.
Selah reached up and angled it toward her face and then slammed it closed, let out a sharp scream of denial and fear. She turned her head away and pressed her face against the window. Scrunched her eyes as tightly as she could. It felt as if somebody had jolted her with a live wire, had run a thousand volts through her. She shook her head, over and over again. No. NO.
Her eyes were black, as smooth and empty as the void. No whites, no iris, no pupil. Just a gleaming and perfectly ebon surface. Vampire eyes.
“No,” she said brokenly. “No.”
They drove in silence. Cloud shot worried glances at her, but kept quiet. Selah had to look again. She opened the visor, then the mirror. Stared into her own black eyes. Leaned forward, got a good look up close. From cornea to corner, they were pitch black.
Selah fell back into her seat. “No.”
“What was he doing exactly? What was he trying to do?”
“He said he was going to steal my humanity. Exchange it for his vampiric curse. But Theo stopped him. I felt it. He stopped him before he finished. I didn’t receive it all. I didn’t give him all of me. It didn’t work.” A name echoed in her mind: Teharonhiawako. She didn’t want to think about that. What it might mean. What the implications might spell out.
Cloud pursed his lips, took the turn off Biscayne and started to head through Midtown. “Well, maybe it’ll wear off. Maybe it’s like an aftereffect from the ritual. Give it a few hours, and it’ll go. You don’t have his strength anymore, right?”
Selah shook his head. “No. That faded away when Theo cut off his head.”
“There you go. So maybe this will too. Look, it’s nearly dawn. A million dollars says your eyes will clear when the sun rises.”
Selah craned to look behind her at the eastern horizon. It was a light gray, streaks of butter yellow already painting the wispy edges of the dark clouds.
“Please,” she said, to nobody in particular. “Please. Don’t let this happen. Please don’t.”
Cloud reached out and took her hand in his own. It was large, long fingered, dry. She held it tightly. They drove in silence, and then Cloud gave a small nod.
“Thank you. For coming for me. For saving me.”
“No problem,” said Selah morosely. She couldn’t muster any enthusiasm with eyes so black.
“You want to know something?” Cloud’s voice had taken that quiet tone of his, half pensive, half subdued. “I was never worried. I never felt like it was over, even when things got bad in that cage. And when you showed up? It was just like this amazing, beautiful confirmation of what I’d known would happen. I’d known it. That I could put faith in you. Somehow. Impossibly.”
Selah looked at him. He met her gaze squarely. She took a breath. Maybe he was right. Maybe it would get better. Maybe sunlight would clear it up.
“I thought it was all over,” she said. “I was caged up with Theo, and then Hector of all people came in and freed me.”
“Who’s Hector?”
“Just this security guard who worked for Plessy. He was part of the group in the helicopter that grabbed us. He said that Karl had told him in horrible detail what was going to happen to us, and that he couldn’t take it. He had to free us.”
Cloud frowned. “That sounds suspect.”
“Yeah,” said Selah, squeezing Cloud’s hand and looking out the window. Strange how these streets already looked so familiar in all their ruinous abandon. “I wonder why Karl did that. Drive it home in such detail for him, I mean.” Selah felt things moving into place in her mind. “It’s like he was trying to provoke Hector into letting us go free.”
Cloud shook his head, turning the wheel so as to drive around the sunken bus. “To what end? You were meant to be a gift to Sawiskera.”
“Yeah. So he said.” Selah continued to tug at the problem, at the events. “I mean, he told me himself you were at the Freedom Fight. And then Hector arrived just in time to free me so I could show up. And …” A memory. Sawiskera at the base of the steps. You have risked your life for love. I needed to know that you would. Realization hit her. “They set us up. They freed me on purpose.”
The Palisades were up ahead, and Cloud began to slow the car. Looked at her in confusion. She continued, excited, “He needed to know that I loved you before …” She suddenly couldn’t look at Cloud, could look anywhere but Cloud. “Um.”
He parked the car. Took his hand from hers and touched her cheek. Her face burned. Stupid to be self-conscious after all they’d gone through, but she still couldn’t turn to look at him. Felt his fingers under her chin, turning her face, and when she looked at him he kissed her, lips firm on hers, hand curling around the back of her head. Pulling her to him, holding her close. She kissed him, closing her eyes, losing herself in the moment, in the feel of him, the taste.
He broke the kiss, pressed his forehead to hers, eyes closed. “Selah. Oh, Selah.”
She reached up and cupped his cheek, ran her thumb over his lips. She didn’t know what to say. How could you feel such joy over so much fear? “This can’t work,” she heard herself say.
“Why not?” He opened his eyes. She felt his long lashes tickle her brow.
“I—I might not be getting better, this could be permanent—”
He kissed her again, cut her off before she could go any further. Kissed her hungrily, his lips pressed against hers, mouth opening. She allowed her words to spiral away, and pulled him closer, tugged at his shirt, his shoulders, until he winced and broke away, gasping in a moment of pain that dissolved into a husky laugh as she began to apologize over and over again.
“It’s fine, it’s fine.” He pulled her close again, pressed his forehead to hers once more. “Selah. I don’t care about your eyes. I don’t care about what might be happening to you. You saved my life. If you’re in trouble, I’ll help. I’m going to get you to safety, no matter what. Get you and your grandmother out of here. I’m not going to leave you.”
Selah tried to smile even as she felt tears brim in her eyes once more. Before they could spill, she kissed him, kissed him as if this time might be their very last.
When they pulled apart, the sun was a half inch over the horizon, and the
first person had set out from the Palisades’ front door with a bucket in his hand. Selah pulled back, lips feeling inflamed, a feverish sensation simmering under her skin. Cloud reached for her again, and then drew back, laughing again at himself. They sat in their seats, and watched each other, the morning light golden and slanting through the car. They smiled at each other, fingers interlaced. They were alive. They were alive, and he needed her, had sworn to help her, protect her, get her and her grandmother to safety.
Vampire Miami Page 25
